Broken
by astradanvers
Summary: any pairing. broken marriage
1. Chapter 1

They run into one another so rarely these days, it's been torture and peace in so many ways. Tonight Kara's breath catches in her throat and Alex squeezes her arm, so what if it was clique to bring family as your date when you weren't dating anyone. She was still married anyway, why would she be dating anyone. "She's beautiful," Kara breathes quietly.

"You should talk to her," Alex tells her when they've found themselves alone in a quiet corner.

Kara shakes her head, "We've been avoiding each other for over a month, Lex, why change now."

"Because you have a son to think about, Kara," Alex says sharply. "Carter may not be yours biologically but he is yours and he does depend on you. Yet you haven't seen him in a month. Go talk to her damnit or I will."

Blowing out a long breath Kara straightens her shoulders and makes her way towards the small group of people where Cat is speaking with James and Lucy. She stops just outside of the group, in Cat's direct line of sight. Cat's easy smile doesn't slip away but it does change to a rather fake one, "If you'll excuse me," she says, "I've just seen someone I need to discuss a rather important issue with."

James nods, knowing Kara is behind him, "Of course, Ms. Grant."

Cat moves away from them and towards Kara, wrapping a hand around the younger woman's forearm and dragging her away and into a room off the side of the hall, "What the hell are you doing here?" she seethes.

"I was invited," Kara grounds out, teeth clenched. "Am I not allowed to attend media galas just because you may be there now?"

"You're allowed to do whatever the hell you want," Cat snaps back, "but stay out of my way while you're doing it."

The older woman starts to storm past the younger but Kara grabs her wrist, "What the hell happened?" she demands, her grip tightening but never enough to bruise or harm the other woman.

"I am NOT doing this here," Cat stresses, wrenching her wrist free of Kara's grasp.

She continues towards the door, "You never want to do it anywhere, why should here be any different."

Whirling around Cat marches straight back to Kara and slaps her, "You left," she seethes, "you left me. You don't get to judge because you fucking left me, Kara." Cat brushes roughly at the tears on her cheek, "You left me alone in that damned hotel after Carter's father dropped the biggest bomb I'd ever had thrown at me."

Kara stares at Cat, "I didn't leave you," she says quietly. She reaches out then, replacing Cat's rough swipes at her cheeks with her own gentle ones, "I went down to the cafe down the street to get you coffee and breakfast. I came back to the desk manager telling me that you'd left in flurry of bags and cursing without letting him explain where I'd gone. You haven't spoken to me since."

"It's not like you've tried very hard," Cat sniffs.

For long moments Kara stares at Cat, remembering the twenty messages she'd left on Cat's phone in the first three days alone, "I know," she says, "that you push people away when you're hurt, Cat, I've fought through it every time you've tried to push me away. I want to fight through it this time," she looks away, "I'm so tired of fighting alone." She closes her eyes, moves towards the door, "Tell Carter I love him and that I'm always here for him if he needs me, all he has to do is call." She stops at the door, hand on the handle, "It's all you have to do too." When Kara gets back to Alex's side she allows her older sister to wrap her arm around her and steer her from the gala, tears already forming in her eyes, she misses her family.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I wasn't going to continue this, I really wasn't. But you guys wanted me to and so here it is :)**

Kara's at her desk editing the newest article her boss has given her when her phone starts ringing. Briefly she glances at the screen _Carter_ flashing on it and she snatches it up instantly, "Hello."

"Ma?" her son's voice is choppy and she knows he's been crying. She glances at the clock on the wall, it's four fifteen, he'll be home in his room by now.

"It's me, baby," she says quietly, eyes filled with tears of her own, "I'm here."

"I miss you."

"Oh, Carter, I miss you too, so much." Her hands idly play with the pen on her desk, "I'm sorry I haven't called," she closes her eyes, "I didn't know if you'd want me to."

She hears him sniffle, "Mom won't tell me what's going on, Ma. Why haven't you come home? I don't -" he stops, "Mom's home."

Before he can say more Kara hears the phone change hands, "Kara?"

"Yeah," Kara says quietly after only a moment of consideration. "I'm here, Cat."

Kara hears Cat clear her throat, she's been crying too, "Can you-can you come over?"

Drawing in a sharp breath Kara nods, "Yeah-yeah, I'll be there in twenty minutes," she says quietly. "Just let me talk to my boss."

The clipped, "Thank you," is soft all the same.

"You're welcome," Kara says quietly. "I-" she cuts herself off with a shake of her head, "I'll be there soon."

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Kara considers flying onto the balcony of the building she once, and still if she's honest, considered home but shakes her head at the last minute and lands in the alley around the corner, walking into the lobby and taking the elevator up to the top floor. Ringing the doorbell is so foreign when there's a key burning a hole in her pocket, begging to be used. Carlotta pulls the door open with a sad smile, "Hello, Ms. Kara."

Smiling her own sad smile at the housekeeper Kara steps into the apartment, "Hey, Carlotta." She glances into the den but finds it empty, "Where are they?"

"Ms. Cat is in her office and Carter is in his room, they," she shakes her head, "they've been fighting again."

A sigh slips past Kara's lips, "Have they been fighting a lot?"

Carlotta nods, "You should speak with Ms. Cat."

Kara squeezes the woman's arm, "Thank you," she says quietly, "for looking out for them. Especially when I can't."

The woman smiles, "Always, Miss Kara."

The steps that Kara takes are memorized, a path she's walked a hundred times and a path she'd walk a hundred more if she could just come home. She stops in the doorway to Cat's home office, leans her head against the jamb as she observes the woman within. Cat's head is bent low over whatever document she's working on, pen scratching over the paper with precision, "I know you're there," she says, eyes never leaving her work. "I can feel you watching me."

"Some things never change," Kara says quietly, but she doesn't elaborate on whether she means her watching Cat or Cat being able to tell when she's watching. When Cat finally looks up there are tears in her eyes making green eyes shimmer and still damp tear tracks already on her cheeks. Moving forward instantly Kara kneels beside Cat's chair, turning the chair to face her, "Hey, hey, what's going on?" She reaches out and gently wipes the tear tracks away, "This is about what he said, isn't it?"

Cat nods, reaching into her desk drawer and pulling a kleenex free, worrying it between her hands, "He was telling the truth." She looks up at Kara, "All of the lies he's told over the years and the one lie I wish he was telling is the truth." She wipes her nose, closes her eyes, "I couldn't stand the thought of having the tests done to start with and I refused but he pushed for them. We had them done last week, the results," she draws in a deep breath, "the results came in this morning." She opens her eyes and looks at Kara, "And now I have to go tell my son," she chokes on a sob, "I have to go tell my baby boy that he's not mine."

Without a thought Kara draws Cat into her arms, settling on the floor beside the desk and pulling the smaller woman into her lap, "It doesn't matter," Kara says quietly. "He's still your son, he's still our son, Cat."

"But what if he wants to find his real parents? His real mother?"

"Hey," Kara says quietly, "you are his real mother. You are the woman who has been there for him, who's loved him and cared for him and soothed his stomach aches and heartaches. You're his mother, Cat, and you are always going to be."

"They could take him away from us, Kara," Cat whispers, face pressed into the crook of Kara's neck, "what do we do?"

Holding Cat closer, tucking the smaller woman's head under her chin and pressing a kiss to the crown of her head, Kara considers her next words, "We sit here for a little while longer, collect our thoughts and a little bit of courage and then the two of us go down the hall. We talk to our son like the fourteen year old that he is and then we go from there." She thinks about whether she should say more or not, "I'm sorry," she finally says, "for that morning in Paris, I'm sorry. I needed a little time to think that morning and I walked to the cafe but I still thought I'd be back before you woke up. I even left you a note," she pauses, "or thought I did. I found it in my pocket three days later."

Cat scoffs with a mutter of , "Idiot," she doesn't pull away from her safe place against Kara's neck though. "I'm sorry too," she says quietly, "I should have known you were coming back. You've always come back, no matter what. I just," she shakes her head, "David dropped the news on me, and I couldn't wrap my mind around it. Then that morning you were just gone and I didn't, I wasn't sure you'd want to be there to see me fall apart."

Tilting Cat's head back gently, making the older woman look at her, Kara questions gently, "What have I always said about you falling apart?"

"That you'd put me back together," Cat replies just a gently. She nestles back into the crook of Kara's neck, drawing in on herself, "Are you sure you can this time?"

Running her fingers through Cat's hair Kara answers carefully, "I will do everything in my power to make sure that everything stays just the same as it has always been. There are things though that inevitably we will have to face," she draws in a deep breath, "one of those may be Carter wanting to know the people who share his DNA."

A sigh flutters past Cat's lips, "I'm scared."

"Me too," Kara tells Cat honestly.

"We should go talk to Carter," Cat whispers.

"Yeah," Kara says quietly, knowing that once they've talked to Carter she'll be expected to leave soon after.

"And maybe," Cat falters, "maybe after we talk to Carter," she clears her throat, "you and I can talk. Maybe you can come home," she looks up at Kara, "we really miss you."

"I really miss you both too," Kara says quietly, leaning down to press her lips to Cat's for the first time in over a month. She rests her forehead against Cat's, "I really want to come home."

"Kara," Cat whispers, "you are home."


End file.
